U.S. Pat. 3,935,596 discloses a back opening surgical gown with a pair of belt sections secured to a transfer card at waist level of the gown. In the trade a back opening gown, often called a "sterile back" gown means one in which the entire gown is sterile, front and back. However, a surgeon does not touch the back of his gown because it is not good technique to place the hands where they cannot be seen. During donning a nurse can touch the gown back.
As a precautionary measure in surgical gowns, good technique requires that areas of the gown below the waist be considered not sterile and touching the gown below the waist should be avoided. However, for a belt to be functional, one end has to be attached to the gown at waist level.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,207 discloses a belting system which has a transfer card on only one belt section. The card is on a loose end of the belt section and could droop below the waist line.
Another important feature of surgical gowns is that a critical front area of the gown not be damaged in any way which might increase the chance of contamination transferring through the gown. A needle puncture through a front of the gown specifically to attach a belt section is highly undesirable. Adhesively attaching a belt section to a front of the gown is also undesirable because the tug on the belt section could tear fibers of the gown and possibly weaken it as a bacterial barrier in the critical front area of the gown. Disposable surgical gowns are usually made of nonwoven material and thus are likely to be damaged by an adhesive anchor being torn from the gown.